As Fraser and I point out in this week’s cover piece, Brown’s major legacy will be to saddle the next government – and the country – with unprecedented levels of debt. There’s the prospect that around £100 billion of public money will be sunk into Northern Rock; there’s another £110 billion set aside for PFI projects, much of which is scandalously kept off the balance sheets; and that’s before we get onto the offical total government debt figure of around £600 billion.
Problem is, that last figure is set to rise exponentially. The latest public finance statistics (out today) reveal that from April to August this year the deficit grew by £28 billion – some £12 billion more than the same period last year, and a figure that puts the public finances on course for a deficit of £70 billion over the entire fiscal year. That would more than eclipse the previous record deficit of £51 billion set by the Major government in 1993.
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